


Luminescent

by LilacEnthusiast



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Light Angst, Magic, Mild Language, Mystery, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Apocalypse, Survival, Teamwork, mild body horror
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-08
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:47:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22617361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilacEnthusiast/pseuds/LilacEnthusiast
Summary: The power has gone out and a significant portion of Paris’ population seems to have vanished overnight, plunging what remains of the city into darkness and confusion.Alya Cesaire woke up that morning unsuspecting of just how much her world would change in the span of a few hours. Now, she finds herself writing what is, as far as she knows, the first and only account of Paris’ sudden transformation into a ghost town with no electricity.
Comments: 29
Kudos: 35





	1. Sparks

**Author's Note:**

> With this fic, I really wanted to try out a premise that felt fresh and interesting (and fun to write). I decided to try writing it in a sort of "journal" format to leave my writing comfort zone and really learn how to capture a character's "voice". I'm really excited to write this story and I hope everyone who comes across it excited to read it!

April 27th, 2017

To whomever is reading this, and I’d really hope someone will get to read this someday, this is Alya Cesaire, moderator and author of the Ladyblog. I’m writing all this down to post on the Ladyblog when things go back to normal so there’s some record of the strange things that have been going on.

My phone has been completely and utterly bricked and the power is out. Literally nothing will turn on, and it seems like it’s that way for the whole street. No houses or street lamps are lit up at all. Even stranger is the lack of, well, people. No one is walking down the street and all the cars are just sitting in the road. A couple seem to have even crashed into street lamps or even each other. There’s no passengers or movement, the doors aren’t even open on most of them. It’s like their passengers just vanished without a trace, leaving their cars to careen out of control, sipping only when they lost momentum or crashed into something.

What’s really worrying me right now, though, is the fact that I haven’t seen or heard from my parents or sisters. I’ve searched every inch of the house, and there’s no sign of them. I even checked Etta and Ella’s obscenely messy room. (Etta and Ella, if you’re reading this, please pick up your room, mom and dad taught you better) They haven’t come home in a couple hours.

All this stillness, this silence, is kind of eerie, to be honest!

Presumably this is the result of some akuma’s attack, but it still seems odd that I haven’t seen hide nor hair of them and nothing seems to have changed except the strange combination of heaviness and emptiness that permeates the air. Hopefully Ladybug will show up soon and fix everything with her miraculous cure. 

I’m trying to make do with canned soup and cereal for dinner. If this keeps up I’ll have to rummage around in the cupboards some more and get creative with my meals. The stove and microwave won’t work, and starting a fire outside of a fireplace indoors doesn’t seem like a good idea. Maybe I could build a campfire in the street if I get desperate enough? There’s no one around to be bothered by the smoke and I could clean it all up afterwards. 

I didn’t realize how hard writing by candlelight could be. Wax started dripping onto my table and papers, and I had to put the candle on a plate. Cleaning the wax off when it cools probably won’t be too hard if I don’t let it pool too mauve and form thick globs of impenetrable nastiness. 

  
  


Hopefully, everything will be ok, and I really can just edit this and post whatever I observe on the Ladyblog when the power and, well, people come back.

  
  
  


April 28th, 2017

When I woke up this morning, everything was still silent aside from the occasional sound of birds or insects. I never thought I’d miss the cacophony of traffic or my sisters getting into trouble before. 

Only a trickle of water came out of the tap when I turned it on, it sputtered and only a trickle of water came out. Shit, the water treatment plants probably can’t properly process the water or something without electricity or staff to manage things. At least, that’s what I assume is going on…

I had to resort to dry shampoo and extra deodorant in the absence of a shower. If this keeps going for days on end, I’m worried about how to avoid getting really grimy. Not to mention brushing my teeth with no water to wash out the toothpaste is a deeply unpleasant experience. I’m considering going down to the Seine to collect some water.

Anyways, I decided to leave the house and investigate more today. The cars still haven’t moved and the power is still out. It wasn’t just cars that were left abandoned though. Bikes, scooters, and strollers were left just sitting empty on the sidewalk or in the street. Cups of coffee and water bottles are just laying on the ground discarded, their contents splattered everywhere and half-drying in the morning sun. Phones and keys and snwhiches are also littering the ground. What’s especially odd is the shoes. There are just empty shoes all over the place in various sizes and styles. High heels and loafers sit next to broken laptops, pens, and jewelry. Tiny booties sit in unoccupied strollers with the occasional bit of cereal or sippy cup. I think I saw a dog trotting around dragging its leash behind itself, but when I tried to approach it, it ran off. There was even a skateboard up against a curb that still had a pair of sneakers resting on top of it. 

Is this some sort of elaborate prank? Did an akuma disintegrate a bunch of people, leaving only their shoes and some of their belongings behind? I’m not sure, but this all really creeps me out. 

I keep hearing scratching and crying coming from the neighbor’s. I think they have a pet cat or something? If things aren’t better by tomorrow, I might have to check on it because it might be starving or something. Maybe I’ll just look through the window to see if he’s ok.

  
  


Sorry, I just keep rambling because I don’t have anyone to talk to and I’m just left here alone with my thoughts. Thank goodness it’s spring break and I won’t have to worry about missing out on schoolwork…

  
  


I hope everyone comes back soon, eating alone at the dinner table and just generally going with no human contact is getting kinda depressing.

  
  


April 29th, 2017

  
  


Today showed no improvement on the “everyone is missing” situation. In fact, I feel like things are generally getting worse, as the city is left to fester with no one to maintain it.

  
  


Some of the food in my fridge is starting to go bad. I can smell it rotting, and I think I should throw the more perishable foods out so I don’t get gassed out of my own home.

  
  


Also, I decided to check on that cat. Shit, I feel kinda bad, but my neighbor’s cat really wouldn’t stop crying, and I was worried it was hungry or really hurt. I just went in and out to leave the poor kitty some food and I closed the door behind me. It was so strange, how the door to my neighbor’s place was just…unlocked.... When I pushed it further open and looked inside, the cat was just sitting in the entryway, staring at me. I could have sworn that cat had amber eyes when I last saw it a few weeks ago, and that he was a normal tabby, not a harlequin. Maybe I’m just imagining things, or maybe my neighbor got a new cat. If you’re reading this, Mr. [REDACTED], sorry for snooping, and I hope you’re doing okay wherever you are.

I really hope everyone is ok, along with their pets, which seem to have escaped the whole disappearing thing like I have. 

In order to get some fresh water today, I went down to the Seine with a large bucket, several containers of water in a wheelbarrow, and some rope. It took a while to fill the bucket and use it to fill the various vessels I brought with me and then drag them all back home, but it was worth it. (I made sure to boil the water over a small campfire I built in the street, just in case it was contaminated by something) At last I could wash my hands before eating my can of heated soup and fire-roasted hotdogs. This might be one of my only chances to have a fire, unless I figure out how to start one with wood and flammable materials alone, since I’m running low on matches and my parents’ lighter isn’t working. 

I’m worried this will be one of my last entries unless I start writing things down before sunset or something. One upside of the lack of electricity, I suppose, is that I can see way more stars in the sky than I used to due to the lack of light pollution. It’s an odd contrast between the shimmering beauty of constellations and the dreary darkness and emptiness of the city streets. 

Here’s to hoping Ladybug and Chat Noir showing up to fix this… unless they disappeared too. Damn, I might actually be completely and totally alone… 

Goodnight, Paris

Goodnight, stars

Goodnight, me

Goodnight, cat

Goodnight, everyone else… wherever you are

  
  


April 30th, 2017

Reader(s), great news… or well… weird news? Well, news of some sort, I guess? When it started getting dark, and my candle died I sort of panicked. I was out of matches after all, and I can’t exactly report today’s findings in the dark, so I started to get frustrated and maybe panic a tiny bit. Then, I felt this weird sort of feeling in my gut, like I was exercising some sort of (mental?) muscle that I hadn’t had or used before, spurred on by the intense desire to keep writing and not be left in the smothering darkness for the rest of the evening. 

Suddenly, this tiny orb of light appeared, no larger than my fingernail. After a few minutes, it flickered out and I felt a little light-headed. I think this light came from me somehow! This probably sounds absurd, but I felt like I was the one that made the light, like that strange feeling was me unconsciously willing it into being.

(Oh, by the way, I’m writing this as quickly as I can with a second light I summoned up before it flickers out too.)

I don’t know how this happened, but I’m going to see if I can replicate it some more, and maybe even increase the size and duration of the light! If this part of my mind (my soul?) really does work like a “muscle” or any other part of my body or my general ability to learn skills, then maybe practicing at summoning the light and conducting tests to see if I can do other things of a similar nature will make me get better at it!

Also, no sign of anyone else besides the cat, who keeps looking at me through the window with this pitiful expression while pawing fruitlessly at the window latch. This was even after I’d fed him. Maybe the poor little guy is lonely too, and probably getting some sort of cat cabin fever what with being cooped up indoors. I’m sorely tempted to let him out, but I’m worried he’d run off and that my neighbor would be upset about his cat running away when he gets back… when everybody gets back.

  
  


May 1st, 2017

Okay, so I spent pretty much the whole day trying to improve my ability to summon this “fairy light”. 

The light grew to the size of a golf ball and I was able to make it last for nearly an hour. Also, I can now produce multiple lights at once, but they’re individually weaker and I have to concentrate more. If I concentrate hard enough, I can make the light produce some heat and use it to set small fires... Sure, I passed out and got a bloody nose during this “testing” of the limits to my abilities, but you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette!

Still no sign of other people. I fed my neighbor’s cat again, and I refilled his water bowl with some of the water I’d collected and boiles. I think he’s called Prince Flufferton or something? I’ll just call him that from now on. Regardless, I’m worried about what will happen to him when the spare cat food runs out. Maybe I will start giving him my leftover meat or something? 

Also, since my investigation is still showing no signs of anyone else, I’ve started doing other things to occupy myself when I’m not practicing my powers or boiling water. like reading ahead in my school textbooks. I’ve learned so much about nematodes and World War I, today …

  
  


I miss my friends and family so much….

  
  


May 2nd, 2017

Progress! The light now lasts for noticeably longer and is now the size of my fist. I’ve been using it to heat up smaller portions of my food and water by forming the light around the relevant object and increasing the heat and intensity for several minutes. The results vary in quality, but they’re generally edible, and I have yet to get food poisoning when eating food prepared via magic “fairy light”.

Also, that sneaky little cat slipped through the door while I was leaving after putting more food in his bowl. Prince Flufferton has been following me since, and he doesn’t seem to respond much to what I’m saying, or any noise at all. Either he’s oblivious to his surroundings or deaf, I guess. Aren’t blue eyed cats more likely to be deaf or something? Sometimes he’ll just stare at what I’m writing very intensely, almost like he can read or something. He’s doing it right now, and if he can read this, he needs to stop knocking my used cans off the table. I need those to collect more water and see if I can heat metal! Also, when things get back to normal, you’d better go right back to your humans’ place so they don’t end up needlessly worrying about you, Prince Flufferton.

Now he’s strutting around and glaring at the television, which is off by the way. I think he’s offended by his own reflection or something.. or maybe he’s staring into the void and having a kitty existential crisis. Geez, I don’t have much to do right now, do I? Tomorrow I could start planning investigations on the disappearances and how I can reverse it… as well as finding ways to feed myself more long-term since the food in the cupboards is starting to run low, and even most of that stuff is not ideal since it’s stuff like beef jerky, cereal, and chips. I feel like I have some vague moral hang ups going on with taking food (that hasn’t gone bad yet) from grocery stores and restaurants, because I’m not sure if they’d be restored by Ladybug's miraculous cure. I suppose they’ll be lost merchandise anyways if they rot, but some part of me still considers it some form of theft and thus a bad idea. Most of it's probably inedible by now anyways... 

Maybe I could start growing my own food? That would take a while and probably a lot of time and effort, but something fresh would be amazing right now. I’m getting super sick of canned and dried foods.

  
  


May 3rd, 2017

The isolation may be starting to get to me, but I really think there’s someone else nearby! So basically, what happened was that I went down to the Seine today, as I usually do, and I noticed something odd (while trying to meet Prince Flufferton from tumbling into the Seine). There was a crude pulley system placed a few dozen feet away from my usual collection spot that wasn’t there a few days before. It seemed to be made from large wooden spools for holding yarn and some sturdy rope, and was driven into one of the short walls adjacent to the Seine with one end of the rope tied to a stake in the ground and another attached to a bucket that was currently hanging slightly above the water.

It makes sense that whoever else is left has traveled down to the Seine at some point, since that’s the nearest body of even vaguely potable water. It’s a shame we haven’t come to the Seine at the same time and ran into eachother before, but I guess there’s a lot of hours in the day and the other person probably has no idea I’m here either. Hopefully they’re friendly and we can team up and swap any information we have on what we think may have happened. 

Perhaps I could use my “fairy lights” here to attract their attention, and a note explaining my situation. 

  
  


May 4th, 2017

Guys, this is amazing! There really is someone else left, and it’s Marinette! Words cannot describe how happy I was to see her waiting by the place where I left my note and “fairy light”. Apparently she’s also lost electricity and just suddenly woke up to find everyone missing too! She seemed incredibly disturbed by the apparent disappearance of much of the Parisian population, and kept absentmindedly reaching up to touch her ears, which didn’t seem to have those earrings she always seems to wear. That’s odd, but probably not super relevant to the task at hand. I can bring it up to her tomorrow morning.

Marinette had brought along some of the baked goods that had been in storage at her parents’ bakery. Imagine my surprise when they were quite fresh, a bit cold, but not stale in the slightest! Croissants and cookies taste absolutely heavenly when you’ve been eating canned food and cereal for the past week! Not to mention it was such a relief to be able to talk to one of my friends again. Hopefully we’ll be able to keep eachother from going mad with isolation or something.

Considering how bad things have been otherwise, it seems that luck is finally on my side again (at least a little bit).

I’m just so glad that at least there’s at least one other person left and it’s someone I already know and get along with. Hopefully, Marinette still, I don’t know, existing(?) bodes well for the continued presence of even more people. Maybe my family and my boyfriend are ok too, and I just need to find them, wherever they are. Maybe they’re looking for me too. I’ve missed them and my friends from school a ton these past few days. 

Some part of me was so worried that there was no other human left on the face of the earth except for me before I found Marientte again. She says she was worried she was the only one left too. (She also told me to say hi to my readers for her when I finally post this.)

We’re going to meet up at the Seine again tomorrow at noon and begin planning on how to combine our efforts and begin working on a more sustainable source of food and other amenities while we search for others. 

Wish us luck, dear reader(s)!


	2. Illuminate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everybody, I hope you all enjoy this chapter and that you're all doing okay! This fic is being pretty difficult for me to write due to its nature of being a sort of "journal style" story, but I am rather excited for future plot points I have planned, and I hope everyone thinks that they're as cool as I do.

May 5th, 2017

  
  


Okay, so, I met up with Marinette again today, and I have a lot to think about. Sorry if this is a bit jumbled and messy, I’ll cut this down and revise when I’m finally able to post it on the Ladyblog. Maybe I should create a separate section of the blog for this part when the electricity comes back if this account of what’s going on gets too long. I’m starting to worry that this fiasco could last weeks or even months. I’m not sure if I, if we, can fix this or how. At some point we’ll need to leave Paris to see if the rest of the world is like this. Traveling would be hard, though, since neither I nor Marinette know how to drive a car. That’ll have to wait until after we figure out if anyone else is left in Paris and we secure a steady supply of food that we can bring with us on multi-day trips. Maybe we could use my bike…

Oh, right, I should probably get into my meeting with Marinette and how today went!

  
  


As it turns out, I’m not the only one who has been manifesting powers. Marinette noticed that the produce her parents ordered a few days ago was still fresh despite her fridge not working, so at least there won’t be any need to worry about food going bad while we try to survive and figure out what’s going on.

She says this ability seems to keep any organic product within 20 square feet of her will not decay and that she can heal things like minor bruises and cuts, but it results in lightheadedness and nausea. I think that kicking her ability into overdrive to actively heal damaged things rather than just latently preserving them depleted her blood sugar… I’ll ask her if we can test her power on some bruised apples later (with some snacks and a first aid kit on hand in case she over-exerts herself).

Also, we’ve decided to leave “fairy lights”, maps with directions to the bakery, and notes by the Seine and other locations that people would most likely frequent to seek out food, water, medical supplies, or friends and family members. Hopefully whoever is out there gets our messages or perhaps we might even get lucky and actually encounter someone while we are out placing lights and notes. I’m still note sure of how much the isolation has been affecting Marinette, but it has been giving me the jitters. since I’m so used to being around others both online and in person. Either way, at least we now both have someone we can actually talk to, and hopefully we can work together to find out if our friends and family are alright… 

We’ll probably be operating out of Marinette’s house for now due to her parents’ bakery still having a gas stove that we can easily light up and large amounts of food storage, though we’ll probably travel back to my place and start searching other locations if we need more space and supplies. (My house has more beds… could we potentially either drag the beds from my house to the bakery? Imagine how odd that would look… the two of us lugging a whole bed down the street...)

We may need to pick a new location where we could build a regular fire stove or campfire, since the gas will probably stop working eventually like the water has due to there being no people or power to maintain it. 

We’ll also need to find a way to eventually produce more food, because while Marinette can keep food from going bad, a lot of the more perishable foods out of her range (in supermarkets and whatnot) have already started to go bad and the restorative aspect of Marinette’s powers is rather finicky still. While seeing if she could restore a whole supermarket’s worth of food seems tempting, I can’t risk her seriously hurting herself in the process. 

Also, I’ve been really missing my parent’s home-cooked meals. While the stuff Marinette and I can whip up together can be filling and taste good, I’m not sure how replicable my mom’s recipes are or even if I’d want to try to replicate them without her here. I really wish I could ask my parents or Nora for advice right now. Marinette and I spent so much time today trying to strategize on what our next moves should be on trying to survive and figure out what happened, but it’s so hard when it’s just the two of us dealing with all this.

Right now, everything feels so surreal, like some sort of nightmare. Finding Marinette has brought me some hope that things will be okay and that we can find others, but it’s also somehow making me realize that this isn’t just some dream I’m having. The pain on her face was plain as day when we went to the bakery today and we passed by what I can only assume were her parent’s shoes left vacant after their disappearance. Despite the flour and bits of dough, the shoes were super clean, almost as if someone had been wiping away any dust and grime on them.

She said that she didn’t want her parents to be stuck barefoot if they popped back into place in the same location they disappeared from. Y’know what, I think this really is affecting her more than I initially thought. We need to find some way to cope with all this and relax (I am  _ totally  _ not constantly stressed out right now…  _ definitely not _ ), since we won’t be able to survive if we end up having mental breakdowns. Maybe playing with Prince Flufferton could work, because he’s pretty cute when he isn’t being a little snot-head and knocking my notebook off the table (if you can read this, I know it’s you! You cannot hide the crimes committed by your fuzzy little paws!). 

  
  


May 6th, 2017

  
  


Holy shit guys, something big happened today!

It was pretty early in the morning, and I had just woken up to the sound of rain pounding against the roof about me and Marinette. As I stared at the ceiling, I heard the doorbell ring. For a second I thought I was imagining things due to being half-asleep, but it kept on ringing. Realizing that this meant someone was at the door, I threw on a sweatshirt and flip flops and ran downstairs. Upon opening the door, I was absolutely overjoyed to see the familiar faces of Adrien and my (super cute) boyfriend, Nino.

Above them, held up by Nino’s hand was a tiny glimmering green force field, acting as a makeshift umbrella. Both of the guys looked exhausted and Adrien looked especially drained, so I pulled Nino into a tight hug and ushered them into the bakery and out of the rain. While they were getting settled (and taking off their muddy shoes) I ran back upstairs to wake up Marinette, who seemed just about as excited as I was.

Once Marinette and I had changed out of our pajamas and heated up some leftover pancakes and sausages for us all to eat, we began to talk with Nino and Adrien to find out what had been happening on their end since most of Paris up and disappeared. 

Nino said that he’d been chilling in his room, when Adrien showed up at his house looking really twitchy and distressed. Apparently this was father to him getting in a really nasty fight with his dad before sneaking out that Adrien asked for me to not elaborate on here due to the very personal nature of the argument. Seeing as Adrien wanted some distance from his father and “mausoleum” of a mansion, he was hoping he could stay at Nino’s until further notice.

Luckily, Nino was cool with it and able to convince his mom into approving the impromptu “sleepover” along with letting Adrien eat dinner with their family. He said Adrien seemed really out of it during dinner, hardly eating or saying anything. According to Nino it looked like Adrien was either going to cry, vomit, pass out, or all three. Some juice and anti-nausea pills seemed to made Adrien feel a little better, but he was obviously still deeply emotionally distressed when they went to bed for the night.

When Nino woke up the next morning to find his family missing, he also found Adrien unresponsive. After frantically checking Adrien’s pulse, Nino found that he still had a heartbeat and was breathing, but they were weak. Hearing nothing but silence on the other end when he tried to call an emergency number and then his parents was one of the most terrifying moments in his life. He hadn’t been sure if he should try to drag Adrien to the hospital or leave Adrien alone while seeking help. In that moment he’d felt truly alone and terrified that his friend was having some sort of serious health issue that he could do almost nothing about… Eventually he decided to quickly run to a neighbor’s house, and that was how he found out that his neighbor and everyone on his street was gone. He spent the next hour or so making sure Adrien’s condition wasn’t worsening before rushing to the nearest doctor’s office in a last-ditch attempt to find help before returning home to an Adrien who seemed to have developed a fever. His power first manifested when he nearly dropped the medication that he had been using to bring down Adrien’s fever, and a tiny sphere formed around it, barely larger than a marble. After a few minutes of staring at the smooth slightly shimmering sphere in his hand, Nino claimed to have “wished it away” and gave Adrien the medication in a daze, only realizing that he could replicate this ability later to do things like collect water and protect his hands when handling hot food.

Adrien doesn’t remember much of what happened after dinner that night or during the next few days, but Nino said that Adrien had stayed really sick, like... looking like he was on death’s door levels sick. When Adrien’s fever broke and he started looking like he didn’t have one foot in the grave, he had claws. As in, shiny retractable bits of bone protruding from his fingertips kind of claws. They seemed to have been coated in a highly corrosive unidentifiable substance that smells strongly of vinegar and damp soil. Luckily the substance doesn’t seem to do him any harm and he can retract the claws so they remain under his normal nail beds most of the time, although he claims it’s been difficult learning how to use muscles he’s never had before to extend and retract them. They found one of my “fairy lights” while searching for others (once Adrien was well enough to walk) and realized that they recognized my handwriting and the bakery’s location, and headed over as soon as they could to see if we were really here.

Prince Flufferton acted pretty strangely around Adrien throughout the conversation, constantly meowing and head butting Adrien’s legs. The cat calmed down a bit when Adrien picked him up and started petting him. For some reason or another, I guess the cat really wanted his attention. Maybe he could tell that Adrien would give him some food off his plate or maybe Adrien’s just a cat whisperer. I’ll need to ask him about this later… 

Then again, Prince Flufferton has always been a bit weird and temperamental for a cat, based on my admittedly limited experience with felines. For example, I’m pretty sure it’s not normal for cats to be super averse to getting their collar touched. He actually started hissing and trying to bite me when I tried to make sure his collar wasn’t too tight and chafing his neck. When I stopped trying to touch his collar he went right back to his typical non-aggressive behavior. 

  
  


Later in the day (after we debated over whether pop tarts are ravioli or calzones, Marinette got really passionate about arguing that pop tarts were really the horrific fusion of cannoli and macaron), I proposed sending out a search to investigate the Agreste mansion to figure out if it would make a good alternate base. Everyone seemed okay with it, despite Adrien’s initial feelings of apprehension. Hopefully we also find something there that could put Adrien’s mind at ease, since he’s been pretty messed up emotionally the past few days (according to Nino). Adrien’s passed out on the floor of Marinette’s room right now in a pile of assorted pillows and fabric. 

Nino brought an air mattress and sleeping bags from his house that his mom bought for their family camping trips every summer. That lady has a real passion for bats, and I honestly feel like I learned more about the local fauna while visiting Nino’s house than I have in school! I wonder what would happen if an insectivore like some species of bats tried to eat one of Hawkmoth’s akuma. Would it get akumatized or would it just be able to digest the magical butterfly as if it was a normal bug? Also, I haven’t seen any akuma’s lately, and I’m not sure if it’s because this all is due to an akuma who isn’t showing themselves, Hawkmoth’s given up due to there not being many people left to akumatize, or Hawkmoth being among the people who disappeared.

  
  


Argh, I think I’m getting off topic again…. I’ll write more tomorrow, after we’ve investigated.

  
  
  


May 7th, 2017

Okay, so, Nino and I went to investigate the Agreste mansion today, and let me tell you, things were really, really weird. Well, they were weirder than they have already been lately. 

When we approached the mansion, we were almost instantly hit by the stench of something burning. Everything about the place seemed wrong somehow, and that was even before we saw the massive, gaping crater in the backyard. 

It took up, like, half the backyard, and twisted strips of metal and rebar protruded from its mouth in a weird sort of pattern. There were chunks of metal and asphalt littered around it that were incredibly cold to the touch and glowing with an eerie light. Let’s hope they aren’t radioactive or something….

After walking around the perimeter, trying to get a good look inside the hole, I found a trail of slimy pinkish residue leading away from it. It was almost as if something was pulled out of the hole and dragged away. I really wanted to follow it, but Nino advised against it since we needed to focus on stocking up on supplies and we weren’t sure if whatever left the trail was dangerous. Admittedly, I’m a little miffed that I didn’t get to do as in-depth an investigation as I wanted, but I understand where Nino is coming from (the supplies in the bakery won’t last forever, and we have no access to emergency services). Still, I managed to get a small sample of the slime by scraping it into a plastic bag using a stick. Hopefully I’ll fine some way to identify it later. 

  
  
  


Our search of the inside of the mansion felt almost like an afterthought. Literally everything in that place except for Adrien’s bedroom felt oddly artificial and lifeless. Even the house plants were all wax or plastic replicas. It was so cold and dark in there, even the biggest and brightest “fairy lights” I could produce (recently, if I concentrate enough, I can make them move around and almost begin to take on different shapes) couldn’t quite seem to fully banish the darkness that had swallowed up the interiors of the windowless rooms in the manor. At least we were able to get a massive haul of cheese (thanks to Adrien’s directions). We also found some canned fruit and jars of jam hidden in really weird places around the house. I know Adrien’s family is… rather odd… but this was pretty unexpected (aside from the cheese). All of this creeped Nino out quite a bit (he claimed he felt like “there was, like, something watching us”), and he fiddled with his bracelets whenever he wasn’t loading things into our backpack or writing down information. I’ll make sure to find something to cheer him up after that unnerving encounter with whatever the hell was going on in that house. 

I will admit that something about that place just felt unnerving, like the air was heavy. It was… well… like a mausoleum, being surrounded by the marble and the cold and the rottenness of that place… It was so awful, and yet it piqued my curiosity. 

  
  


Maybe Nino and I shouldn’t have picked a horror movie on our last movie date before all this happened… Ugh, why did Adrien’s dad have to pick such an incredibly creepy and ominous place to live in.

On a more positive note, Marinette and Adrien seemed to have had fun staying behind to see if anyone had found one of our makeshift maps and beacons approached the bakery. When Nino and I had returned, Marinette ran out to greet us and told us that Max, Kim, and Alix had shown up while we were gone. They’d all arrived on a three-person tandem bicycle, and still have yet to explain where and how they got it. These three have also been exhibiting or claiming to have strange supernatural abilities. Max can generate portals that are just barely large enough for him to stick his hand through (he’s been collecting their water by creating portals at the bottom of the Seine). Alix claims to be able to stop or slow down time for a few seconds, but it’s possible that she might just have super speed and her perception of time being slowed down is just due to her moving much faster than everyone else. Kim seems to be able to temporarily amplify or dampen other’s powers standing within arm’s length of them and concentrating really hard.

They brought some supplies (food, blankets, clothes, etc.) with them in a wagon attached to the back of their bike. This means (hopefully) we have enough food between all of us to avoid starving until we find a consistent way of making new food. We might have to eventually start farming or harvesting fruit from the orchards in the Garden of Luxembourg and other trees in parks and public gardens.

  
  


Max is pretty torn up about the electricity going out, since most of his inventions that aren’t solar powered are pretty much non-functional. It seems like his solar powered computer is mostly fine (which hopefully means Markov is fine, whoever he disappeared off to). Any attempts to fish around for internet activity has resulted in empty pages that never load. It was really frustrating to get my hopes up of being able to finally contact others online, only to be let down by the internet itself seemingly being defunct.

  
  


Currently Nino and Adrien are making a fort out of our stash of canned food and declaring themselves the kings of the “can-dom”. Marinette and Max are making a list of all the board games we have along with trying to figure out how to build a brick oven and a more efficient water purifier. Alix is trying to see if she can roller skate down the hall without bumping into anything (I think I might go stop her once I’m done writing this) while Kim is lifting bags of flour like they’re weights. 

Figuring out sleeping arrangements is rough with seven people, so we’re probably going to find a larger location soon so we can fit in more air mattresses and sleeping bags. Marinette has even considered trying to sew some pillows and mattresses using some leftover fabric from her projects. 

  
  


Things feel like they’re getting more complicated by the day, but at least we aren’t so lonely anymore and there’s more hope that we’ll find others. It feels weird and disheartening coming up with long term plans, because this means that this could go on for weeks or even months and that help may not be coming. Fending for ourselves and rebuilding some semblance of a functional society while we search for others may become necessary as the days drag on and on into infinity.

As I sit here with the sun sinking rapidly behind the horizon, staring at this paper illuminated by the dim light of one of my “fairy lights”, I feel terrified of failure and yet somehow oddly optimistic about our prospects of finding the truth and returning our lives to normal.

  
  



	3. Alight

May 8th, 2017

Today, Marinette showed us the sourdough starter her parents keep in the back of the bakery. They’ve been cultivating their own favored strain of yeast there since before Marinette was born, and according to Marinette, they planned to pass it on to her when they finally retire from baking. Their family had collectively taken to calling the yeast Louis. It’s kept in a jar in a combination locked safe, and (according to Marinette) grown from various local yeast cultures, fermenting over time in order to create the perfect sour flavor for the bread. 

(She joked about the yeast technically being her parent’s first born “child”, and I don’t know if I should be concerned.)

Marinette claimed that she had considered using her powers to make sure the yeast stayed alive, or even find some way to improve the growth of the yeast. Personally, I’m rooting for her if that means absurd amounts of sourdough bread and some toast to go with all of these jams and jellies from the Agreste mansion.

Seriously, what was Mr. Agreste’s deal… Now I have the mental image of him eating jam out of a jar with a spoon, and I’m trying to mentally scrub it from my brain as I write this.

Honestly, I’m pretty surprised that Adrien is so normal and well adjusted with that man as his father and Chloe as his only friend until he entered high school. 

Speaking of Adrien, Prince Flufferton has been following Adrien around like a duckling following it’s mom. Alix tried picking up the cat and putting him on the opposite side of the bakery from Adrien, and the moment Alix turned her back Prince Flufferton was sprinting towards Adrien. 

We’ll need to start getting some cat food or more meat, since most of our meat-based food is beginning to run low, and there probably won’t be much left to find around the city that hasn’t gone bad (and what’s still edible is probably loaded with preservatives). Marinette suggested we try fishing in the Seine…

I’m not sure if any of us really know how to fish, so we may have to start learning.

Also, I really want to figure out what’s up with this goopy stuff I’ve collected. Maybe it just jostled around in my bag while I was carrying it or something, but I could have sworn that it moved around while I wasn’t looking. Is it alive? I’m slightly tempted to try various things like putting it under water, heating it up, and pressing it under something heavy, but I’m worried that it might be alive and capable of feeling pain, so I’ll avoid doing any major testing until I know for sure it’s alright. 

Focusing on whatever smaller mysteries I can is honestly making it a lot easier for me to grapple with the enormity of our situation. We have to bring everyone else back, but I’m not sure how. Hopefully this goop is somehow connected to what happened and can bring us at least a step closer to making everything alright again. I mean, this stuff appearing around the same time as the mass disappearances can’t be a coincidence, right? 

May 9th, 2017

  
  


Good news, someone else showed up at the bakery today! She’s named Kagami and she is part of the same fencing program as Adrien. She literally slid her head through the gap between the door to the bakery and the floor and started talking to us as if she didn’t appear to be a seemingly disembodied head. Based on her explanation and “demonstration”, Kagami can turn parts of her body into water or ice and has been able to manage larger and larger portions of her body over time. She’s been using this ability to pick locks and transform her hands into tools made of ice. 

  
  


(Thank goodness Marinette and her smoothed things over before all of this happened or it would be really awkward having them living in close quarters together. Kagami actually seems to be pretty nice, even if I don’t know her that well...)

Kagami’s sudden arrival has me thinking about who seems to still be here in Paris, or at least is still here and willing to join up with and/or contact us. 

Here is a list of everyone so far:

  * Alya (me)
  * Marinette
  * Nino
  * Adrien
  * Alix
  * Kim
  * Max
  * Kagami 



It seems like most of the remaining people either go to the same school or know people who go to said school. I’m not sure if this is due to general proximity or some other factor, since I don’t remember being in school when this all happened and we all live on different streets and in different homes for the most part. I’ll have to interview everyone at some point and try to find out if there is some other connection besides most of us running in similar social circles and developing some sort of supernatural power. I’ll also need to make a list of everyone’s powers and how they develop, as they could be useful and connected to why we still seem to be around. 

Also, the goop seems to react to the light and mild heat generated by my fairy lights, and it doesn’t seem to be drying out at all. It definitely has some semblance of life, or even some form of rudimentary intelligence. I wonder if I could communicate with it somehow or if it came from some larger being. I’ve had to stop Prince Flufferton from grabbing the goop in his mouth and stealing or even eating it (ew) a few times. I swear, despite him being oddly intelligent at times, that cat will eat literally anything small enough to fit in his mouth. I wonder if he’s been sneaking out and rifling through the trash cans, or if someone or something else is doing that. Honestly, I haven’t seen a dumpster or outdoor trash receptacles that isn’t overturned or surrounded by scattered garbage since about a few days ago. 

  
  


May 10th, 2017 

So, I have some more updates on, well, some pretty major things. It’s mostly planning stuff, but hopefully all of this planning and mapping things out will help us move towards increasing our chances of survival long-term (I really hope this won’t last for too long, but we might as well prepare) and being stable enough to start more actively looking for clues.

We are planning on moving our “home base” to Francois DuPont, since it is familiar “territory” to most of us and has a good amount of space. Empty classrooms can be used to store things like food, clothes, tools, and whatever evidence or anomalies we find. 

The homes of pretty much any one of us except for Adrien would be too small to fit us all properly, and no one really wants to live in the Agreste mansion. Everyone seems to be avoiding talking about that place, especially Adrien. While he generally acts like his usual self, sometimes he gets really glum. Usually it takes someone else getting him to engage in some activity (Nino and making improvised music, Kagami and fencing, Marinette and drawing or baking, etc.) to distract him from whatever is troubling him and get him out of his funk. I’m worried about him, and I can tell that I’m not the only one. Hopefully Adrien will be willing to talk about what’s bothering him (if he gets worse and we have to stage an intervention, I might just try to convince Prince Flufferton using some treats to sit on top of Adrien so he doesn’t run off). 

Tomorrow, I’m leading a party down to scope out the Francoise DuPont building and see if it’s safe and possibly develop plans for room placement and whatnot. Marinette has already started drawing up potential rain collection systems and some sort of outdoor oven for us to use should we settle there, and Max is already talking with her about the technical aspects of putting it together. I’ll go and ask for volunteers soon…

Wow, this all still feels so surreal when I take some time to think about it, but I can’t let myself wallow or get caught up in my own thoughts. I can’t let myself or the people I care about down. 

Hopefully looking back on what I’m recording through writing now will help me better organize my thoughts on our situation and perhaps even pick up on things that I overlooked. 

  
  


May 11th, 2017

We left to check out the school bright and early this morning. The walk wasn’t too rough, but the cars and various bits of debris filling the roads and sidewalks did make things a bit harder. We made it to the school just before noon (hooray for analog watches and clocks!) and Kagami turned her fingers into an improvised watery lock pick. Apparently it takes a lot of concentration and effort to magically keep liquid in a particular shape that can be manipulated for long stretches of time and Francoise DuPont has some pretty heavy duty locks thanks to the frequency of akuma attacks in the area. In all honesty, dealing with and taking into account and dealing with the anti-akuma measures here will be interesting, to say the least. Mr. Damocles spent a decent chunk of the school’s budget for the past year installing things like netting to catch insects, a panic button that makes the sprinkler system spray insecticide instead of water, panic bunkers, and false hallways. I think the false hallways were intended to confuse Hawkmoth and non-student or faculty akumas?

(For those reading in the future who weren’t in Paris when Hawkmoth was active, yes, these sorts of “precautions” are very real. One upside of this horrible scenario is that the pompous purple peril doesn’t seem to be actively terrorizing the city right now, although that may be due to him being one of the disappeared…)

Is the building fully up to code? I’m not sure… I’ll need to go to find a book featuring city safety ordinances in regards to building construction. 

Francoise DuPont seems to have been largely empty when the “Great Disappearance” happened (that could work as a concise title for what has occurred), as there were very few shoes, pieces of jewelry, or other discarded items that belonged to students or staff. Seeing the school empty and devoid of light and life (aside from some plants and a few stray insects) was surreal and honestly felt like something out of a horror movie. At least we can spruce it up a bit and make it liveable, and it doesn’t feel literally haunted like the Agreste mansion. 

Keeping the large area clean might be an issue, so we may need to come up with a chore chart or something to rotate duties like cleaning the building, searching the city, and washing clothes. We’ll also need to change any notes we left around, so that they’ll be directed to the school instead of the Dupain-Cheng bakery. In the process of making those changes, we should expand our reach and leave notes and fairy lights in areas of the city that we haven’t really frequented yet...

I think we might start moving our stuff into school grounds in a few days, once we finish figuring out where everyone and everything will be. We might have a set up where there are two or three people per classroom with each inhabited classroom divided up into multiple “bedrooms” via curtains or improvised walls made of cardboard or plywood.

During the trip, I took advantage of the school science labs and some science textbooks to figure out what’s up with the weird goop. It’s not as advanced as top notch research facilities, but I’d probably not be able to make much use of those anyways since I’ve never operated that kind of equipment before.

From looking at a bit of the goop under a microscope, it seems that the goop is made of human cells and a strange cytoplasm-like jelly. What makes this especially weird is that the cells aren’t uniform, it’s someone threw random human tissues into a blender to make a cellular slurry and then suspended them into jelly like some bizarre living jello mold. The cells seem to still be alive, somehow, and it seems like they are the source of the pinkish coloration. Otherwise the jelly is more clear with a very slight purple-ish tint. I really wish that I could get a DNA sample from the cells, but I sadly don’t have the time or resources. 

Pardon my language, but what the actual fuck is going on here. Sometimes it feels like each time I think I’m learning something new about the situation, I end up being left with more new questions than answers. Who and where did this stuff come from? 

Even hours after I can’t stop thinking about it, and whether the person these cells came from is safe. I need to find out who it is, and to do so I’ll either need to figure out how to do DNA fingerprinting or follow the slime trail. My money’s on following the slime right now due to a lack of actual scientists that could show me how to DNA fingerprint and there being no other DNA samples to compare the DNA of these cells to due to me not even having a proper list of potential sources. 

I think I might go out later tonight to investigate. Even though I feel a bit guilty about not letting my friends in on this plan, I don’t want them to worry needlessly or waste their time in case this leads to a dead end. They’ll find out what happened anyways when I come back with whatever information I glean from my investigation, though, so it’ll probably be fine. I’ll make sure to take some food and medical supplies with me in case whoever or whatever this goop came from is injured or hungry.

  
  


Oh wait, they might not be super friendly or open to help… If they end up being too hostile and aggressive to reason with, I can temporarily surprise them with a bright flash from my fairy lights and run away.

  
  


May 12th, 2017

Alright, so I might have snuck out last night while everyone was asleep and followed the goop/slime trail. I also might have found… something… or someone...

After dark, I slipped out through a window and used one of my fairy lights to guide me through the dark. The only noises breaking the oppressive silence of the empty streets were my own footsteps and a few lonely crickets. By the time I had made it to the area near the Agreste mansion that I had last seen the slime/goop trail, I was thoroughly unnerved, but determined to carry on. I’d already come this far, after all, and didn’t see a point in giving up and making all of my effort a waste. Plus, there could be someone actually in danger at the end of that trail or, what was left of it. 

Also of note, those weird bits of rubble in and around the Agreste mansion yard are still glowing, albeit, slightly less brightly.

You see, (dearest readers) most of the goop was gone! It was as if the stuff had picked itself up and walked away! Luckily there were a few small steaks and specks left, shimmering slightly in the rays generated by my fairy lights, along with some scratches and drag marks in the ground. I was able to follow them through quite a labyrinth of streets and buildings until I reached a fairly isolated old apartment building that I’m fairly certain had been abandoned for years and was featured in a handful of urban explorer blogs… The door leading into the entrance was ajar and just sort of swinging on its hinges in the wind. Most of the windows were boarded up or broken, and even from the outside, I could tell that the place was absolutely laden with cobwebs and mold. I mustered my courage and stepped inside the grimy old building, because I’m fairly certain that if I want to be a true reporter, I’ll need to brave gross or even frightening environments to get a scoop and find information that could potentially help people. 

As I went into the building, I sent out a few fairy lights to illuminate the entry better, and soon found that most of the ground floor rooms were empty or inaccessible. 

When decided to try and find a way to investigate the other floors of the building, I noticed that the elevator was out of service. Luckily, there was a fairly sturdy staircase near a moth-eaten old sofa that I could use.

Once I’d made it past the entryway and a ways up the stairs, I saw eyes watching me from the darkness from a flight or so above me. Those were definitely human eyes that I saw peering over the railing, even though I couldn’t made out what the rest of their owner looked like. For some reason, when I called out them, the owner of those eyes didn’t respond and instead slunk deeper into the shadows. The more I tried to follow them, the faster they fled, until I could no longer make sense of where I was or where they had gone off to. I honestly got pretty lost and it took a while for me to find the stairs again. Eerily enough, I couldn’t hear their footsteps or breathing as they disappeared into the maze of dusty old rooms and hallways, seemingly deliberately avoiding the lights I'd made. Bits of that goop seemed to be left wriggling slightly on the floor and railing where I could assume they had been standing when I’d first seen them. These bits of goop were oddly warm and tried to squirm away from my touch when I tried to pick them up. I decided not to take any more with me…

Eugh, now the stuff is starting to remind me of jam or jelly a little bit (and I’m starting to get sick of anything gelatinous and sweet).

Anyways, I feel oddly shaken by what I encountered and experienced in that apartment building. Maybe the person I saw was injured and delirious and unable to understand that I was not a threat and, in fact, there to help them. Just in case, I left a small hunk of cheese and some bread, along with a short note, as a sort of peace offering on that flight of stairs where I first saw them. Hopefully they find it and understand my good intentions, because I really think they might need help (even if they aren’t hungry or hurt, it must be pretty lonely out there).

(If you’re reading this at some point in the future, mysterious stranger, I really hope that you’re ok and that you’re not lactose intolerant. We don’t have many options for food, and cheese was one of them...)

I need to tell the others. 


End file.
